twitter

30.6.08

"You can't deny the power of a person in their moment of making art... good work isn't fashionable... seems to be the least tried, the least effort is a marketing gimmick... the art world hasn't quite figured out how to deal with us... it never was about making money. Never ever... half the kids who use that fucking term [street] don't know what it means."

29.6.08

"When are women supposed to have babies in this day and age? Not when you're young because you can't afford them/ are too immature, not when you're mature because you need to work. No-one gets married before 30 anymore, the you have to have a few years alone together, buy a house, save some money etc. By the time it's socially acceptable to have kids, most women can't anymore."

26.6.08

24.6.08

"In the course of adjusting to the strangeness of English life, I'd made this vast effort of fatalistically switching off my memories of wartime China. I never spoke about it to anyone, including my wife or children or any of my friends... [he was aware of] an unconscious ferment going on, the knocking on the floorboards, the past under my feet saying: we haven't gone away. I thought, I've got to get all this down, before I forget."

23.6.08

The new Girl Talk album Feed the Animals is out, and you can opt to either pay the guy or download it for free. I cheer on most of the independent/remixing/sample based music community, but I'm struggling to find a reason to give this chap money for an album that has zero distribution costs (torrents are free - the hosting they've chosen is optional) or creative. His music is no different to Jive Bunny and the Mastermixers used to do in the 80s. In fact, reading Wikipedia, it's not even comparable there because Jive Bunny et al recreated all the music from scratch using sound-a-like musicians.

In my opinion: Girl Talk makes party mix albums, and while I completely appreciate the hours he must have dedicated to gluing the samples together, it's not really that inspiring to me. He's not re-purposing them to write a new narrative - he's snatching funny little moments that click with the target audience (under 25, white American hipsters). Those moments were created by someone else. When the theme tune to Dawson's Creek kicks in, you're thinking about the first season of the television show where Pacey loved the teacher and Joey loved Dawson and Dawson loved Jen. And what a good time that was, when all you had were your crush and your homework to think about. But that is not a music album.

I guess when you're exposed to Kanye West singing through a wired jaw with Chaka Khan or the RZA remixing Japanese culture for the mid-nineties hip hop kids, Girl Talk pulling "moments" even hinting that we should pay for it is poor fare. And it's probably going to work, if he doesn't get slapped with a lawsuit when he's forced to reveal how much he's earned from it (he's not paying the original musicians last time I looked). People love nostalgic moments. But for me, I'm drawing the line at such unoriginal use of samples. The only way he'll earn my money is to come to Bristol and hold a party. I'd pay more than the average £11 show.

But not much more.

[note: I still feel that this opinion is pretty weak, and it frustrates me, but the overall sentiment is that it's just not money well earned yet]

PingMag: Japanese Vending Machines. Eco friendly vending machines! Face recognition vending machines! Socks! If I ever visit Japan, I can guarantee that someone will have to drag me away from these things, I think they're bloody brilliant.

Louis Armstrong liked to make collages. Collages are the best way to crystallise memories without keeping a lot of bulky boxes of papers around.

15.6.08

Masaru Goto documents the Burakumin, one of the underclasses of Japan: "The roots of Buraku discrimination come from feudal Japan, when the Buraku were areas separated from the other social classes. The people there lived under tight restrictions in every part of their lives, such as clothing, jobs, and home, due to the feudal class system formed by a variety of political and social factors"

14.6.08

Dan asked me to do this meme, and being that it's not entirely pointless, he gets his unbirthday wish. I don't talk about music enough, and not entirely sure I've done a good job, but here goes 7 music tracks I am mostly listening to at this point in 2008:

1) Tom Waits - Earth Died Screaming (starts at 1:50ish, a great fan mashup). So thanks to Scarlett Johansson's album (which is OK, her voice is really interesting, but got deleted from my hard drive recently) I realised I should probably get around to running through Waits' back catalogue. And now I'm addicted to this song, because it actually does what it says on the tin. Sounds like the death of the earth. Monsters and demons coming out of the ground, the whole she-bang.

2) Lykke Li - This Trumpet in my Head - from the album Youth Novel, which I think is out now? Regardless, I need to buy it soon. It's kind of sad and echoey and is basically this:

"I can't get that trumpet out of my headI woke up and I can't get that trumpet out of my headAnd you say you can't stand me when I'm quiet,and so I shot you in my silence"

Just a straightforward, haunting song with depth.

3) TanDun - Hero Overture. Even though he repeats the refrain from the Crouching Tiger/Hidden Dragon soundtrack, Hero = where it's all at. The film by all means is perhaps the most perfect traditional Chinese film to be made so far - the only film to ever make me cry just based on the colours/music/landscape alone. I can't sit through it very often, because it moves me so deeply. This overture is similar to Clint Mansell's Requiem for a Dream soundtrack in that it's simple, wrenches at you, and is unmistakably identifiable. Even though I've heard it thousands of times by now, it never loses power.

4) Soko - I'll Kill Her. Found through Muxtape the other week. So have you ever had that one person that just sweeps in and takes everything you like for themselves and ruins everything you had planned for your future? Yeh, me too. This cracks that issue on the head. She is a filthy little mare with a funny accent, and you don't get much better than that.

5) Gnarls Barkley - Going On. I find GB to be really difficult to describe, because there's literally nothing out there that I've experienced in the same way. Poignancy, love, humour and style. They make me feel like I'm looking into the future.

6) MIA[WARNING: DO NOT CLICK IF YOU HAVE EPILEPSY OR GET MIGRAINES] - Bucky Done Gun. She is one crazy crazy lady. Didn't like her music when I first heard about her, she took a few listens and a bit reading. So it's taken me until now to listen to her first album [Arular, 2005]. Still don't think I understand what's going on. But fuck, what fun goes on in her world. She's a total female role model. I'll take a piece of that thanks.

7) Skunk Anansie - Cheap Honesty. Is anyone out there still listening to SA? I ripped all my albums recently, and Cheap Honesty was the one that got me singing along without realising. Storming, emotional, kickass music. I wish they'd kept making albums, one of the best examples of 90s Brit rock.

And there you go. Now I'm going to listen to some Goatlab Radio because that's how I get my monthly dose of different/local music.

13.6.08

11.6.08

"As a Black artist I am compelled to consider racial identity and perception. Now more than ever, it is necessary to reflect on our own lives and understand what conditions have shaped who we are. I am interested in W.E.B. Dubois' double consciousness. Navigating the void between the nigger and myself, how people see me versus how I see myself. I use the term nigger only as a means of describing the problematic portrayal of the African American that is created by our society. Through the careful examination of the alienation and conditioning of the Black community, I hope to create a personalized response communicating my distain for the continuing oppression of Black people."

[disclaimer: I uncensored the word nigger because despite being white, I am not ashamed or afraid to use the word correctly and in context. I do not need to ask why white people aren't "allowed" to use this word. I'm not stupid enough to mishandle the weapon. I know better.]

MP3 Amp [via] reminds me of when I was 14 and in a "band" and everyone wanted one of those tiny tiny portable amps you could buy in the guitar shops.

Matt Haughey talks about how he uses etsy: "I want my daughter to live a life beyond the world of pink Disney princess stuff that most kids get and Etsy is the perfect venue for that." I am a massive etsy fan, but have yet to buy anything, probably because it's all luxury non-necessity items. I'll get around to it after I move, it's the perfect resource for original art/home items.

Women in Photography: "There are more women working in the contemporary photo world then ever before. Their methods, choice of subject matter, visual language, and processes run the gamut of artistic possibility. What unites them is their passion and the effort they devote to creating extraordinary bodies of work. Women in Photography is a showcase for this work."

What 11 years on the internet will get you. Everything here applies to me. Everything. Especially the typing one. This year is my twelfth since first dialling up. I can't wait to see where it will be in another 12.